The Wedding

by Danielle Steel

  “Maybe we'd better get started right now then. Your birthday is in six months. It could take a while.” She was teasing him, but she liked everything he had said. In fact, she loved it. “My parents invited us to dinner tomorrow night, by the way,” she said. “Maybe we should tell them then. Or do you want to wait a while?”

  “Why wait? I don't need a due diligence period in which to change my mind, counselor. As far as I'm concerned, it's a done deal, if that's all right with you?”

  “Maybe we should try it out again,” she teased, “to make sure everything works, kind of like a test drive.” She leaned over and kissed him again, getting cookie crumbs all over their bed, but he didn't seem to mind it.

  “I plan to test drive it a lot over the next several years,” he said, kissing her again. And he set his champagne glass down on their bedside. And a moment later, they were making love again. By midnight, they were happy and exhausted. “I think you're going to wear me out long before the wedding,” he complained. “Maybe we should reconsider.”

  “Don't you dare!” she warned. “You can't take it back now. It's one minute after midnight. It's not April Fools' anymore. You're stuck with me, Mr. Hamilton.”

  “Hallelujah!” he said, and kissed her.

  “Do you want a big wedding or a small one?” she asked, lying in bed, smiling at him.

  “I don't think we have time for anything very big, if we only have two months, don't you think?”

  “I agree. Forty or fifty people in my mom's garden would be perfect. That's all I want. Maybe even smaller.” She looked at him, embarrassed that she hadn't asked him. “Unless you want to invite a lot of friends. I didn't mean to just announce what we were doing.”

  “That's all right,” he smiled at her. “The only one I really want is my mother. I have a few friends out here, but not many. And the rest of my friends are pretty spread out all over the East, and Europe. It's a lot to expect them to come all the way out to California. I think forty people sounds just fine. I'll have to call my mother and tell her. She goes to Europe in June every year, and she likes plenty of warning if she has to make changes.”

  “Will she be pleased?” Allegra asked seriously, a little bit worried. The photograph of the woman she had seen in the apartment in New York had terrified her. She had looked so austere, and so cold, so unlike Jeff or his late father.

  “She'll be fine. She finally stopped asking me about four years ago if I was ever going to get married. I think she gave up when I turned thirty.” That, and the fact that she had hated all his girlfriends for the past twenty years. But he was sure she was going to like Allegra. Who wouldn't?

  “I can't wait to tell my mom.” Allegra beamed. “She's going to be so happy. They really like you.”

  “I hope so.” And then he turned to Allegra seriously, and kissed her very gently. “I'm going to take very, very good care of you, for the rest of my life. I promise.”

  “So am I. I promise, Jeff … I'll always be there for you.”

  And then as they lay side by side in bed, holding hands and talking about their plans, Jeff suddenly chuckled. “Why don't we go to Vegas on the bus— we could wear wigs again and you could toss a bouquet of white plastic orchids.” His mother would have croaked. But it had actually been fun at Carmen and Alan's wedding.

  “There's something to be said for that,” Allegra said. “If my mom can jazz this wedding up, she will. Count on it. We may have to go to Vegas.”

  They both laughed, and they cuddled into their bed, like two kids, planning an enormous adventure.

  And when Allegra left for work the next day, she was so excited she forgot her car keys, and had to come back sheepishly to get them. She collected another kiss instead, and Jeff almost had to force her out the door so she wouldn't be late for her first appointment.

  “Go on … go!” he called after her. “Get lost! Go away!” He waved her away down the short driveway and she was still laughing as she turned up the road. She had never been so happy.

  She smiled all the way through her morning, and looked like the proverbial cat that swallowed the canary. But she didn't want to tell anyone until she had dinner with her parents that night, and she and Jeff told them. It was particularly hard to look Alice in the eye, and not say anything to Carmen when she called her. Carmen was still in seventh heaven about the baby. But Allegra thought her own news was even more exciting.

  She tried to get Jeff to come into town to have lunch with her, but he said he couldn't. He had too much work to do on his screenplay.

  “But I can't have lunch with anyone else,” she complained. “I'd never make it all the way through lunch without telling them. You have to come in and see me.”

  “Not if you want me to go out tonight, Mrs. Hamilton.” She loved the sound of it and so did he, and they loved playing with the words. She had written Allegra Hamilton all over her notepad. She hadn't played games like that since she was fourteen or fifteen, and in love with Alan.

  And in the end, she decided to walk down Rodeo Drive and do a little shopping to see if there were any pretty white dresses, or suits, that would be suitable for a wedding in her mother's garden. She went to Ferre and Dior and Valentino, and Fred Hayman and Chanel, just to glance through the racks and get an idea what they had in white that was pretty. But she didn't find anything. Valentino had a beautiful white linen suit, but it didn't seem dressy enough, and Ferre had a fabulous organdy blouse, but nothing to go with it. But she had fun anyway. She couldn't believe what she was doing. She was shopping for her wedding dress, barely two months after she had met him. She almost wanted to call Andreas Weissman in New York to thank him.

  She was going to skip lunch, but then she decided to stop in at the Grill for a quick sandwich and a cup of coffee. She usually saw people she knew there, either attorneys from her own firm, or agents from ICM and CAA or William Morris. There was the usual smattering of actors too, and some of her friends. The food was good, the service was fast, and the location was perfect.

  And as her eyes scanned the booths as she arrived, she suddenly realized that her father was in a back booth. He was laughing at something, and she couldn't see who was with him. There was a huge temptation to just go over and tell him she was engaged, but she knew her mother would never forgive her for telling him first. She had to wait until that evening, when she and Jeff went to dinner. But she could at least drop by to say hello to him, which she did. She put her blue blazer over a chair at her own table, and went over to see him. She was wearing a short beige skirt, a pale blue sweater, and beige Chanel flats with a matching Chanel backpack. She looked very sleek and very fashionable, and as usual more like a model than an attorney.

  As soon as she reached the booth where Simon sat, he glanced up and saw her, and his eyes immediately filled with pleasure. And then Allegra saw who he was dining with. She looked familiar at first, and then Allegra realized it was the British director she had seen him talking to at the Golden Globe Awards, Dame Elizabeth Coleson. She was very tall, and very young, and quite beautiful. She had a wonderfully deep, sexy laugh, and she was barely older than Allegra.

  “Well, hello there,” her father greeted her. “This is a surprise.” He stood up and kissed her and introduced her to Dame Elizabeth, who was completely without pretension. She was very talented and very down-to-earth and she seemed to be having a very good time with Simon. “This is my daughter, Allegra,” he explained to Elizabeth with a smile, and he explained to Allegra that they were talking about a picture. “I've been trying to talk Elizabeth into working with me for months, and so far, I haven't succeeded,” he complained, and he sat down again, as Allegra watched them. They seemed completely at ease, and as though they were old friends, and had spent a lot of time together. Her father asked her if she would like to join them, but she didn't want to interrupt his meeting.

  “That's okay, Dad. I've got to get back to the office in a few minutes. I just stopped in to grab a sandwich.”

  “W
hat were you doing around here?” he asked, and she grinned at him, dying to tell him, but she couldn't.

  “I'll tell you tonight.”

  “That's a deal,” he said. She shook hands with Elizabeth and left them, and went back to her own table. She ordered the Caesar salad, and a cappuccino, and fifteen minutes later she went back to her office. As she drove back, she found herself thinking of her father and Elizabeth Coleson. She didn't know why, but she had felt the same thing the last time she saw them together, that they knew each other very well and were completely at ease with each other. She wondered if her mother was friendly with Elizabeth as well, and reminded herself to ask her. And then her thoughts went back to her wedding. Her head was filled with it, and she called Jeff three times that afternoon just to giggle and talk about their secret. She could hardly contain herself a moment longer, and by the time they were driving through her parents' gate that night, she felt as though she were about to explode with excitement. She could hardly stand it.

  “Take it easy…. Take it easy….” Jeff said calmly. But he was nervous too. What if they objected, or thought it was too soon, or didn't like him. He had voiced his concerns to her before they left Malibu, and she had told him he was ridiculous, but he was still worried.

  Her father greeted them at the front door, and explained that Blaire was on the phone in the kitchen. She was talking to the architect, and from what Allegra could hear in the distance, it was not a pleasant conversation. He had just explained to her that given the cabinetry she'd chosen, and the tiles, it would take at least seven months to finish the kitchen. And Blaire wasn't shrieking at him, but she was close to it.

  “Maybe we'll just move to the Bel Air for six months,” Simon said, not entirely in jest, as he offered Jeff a drink, and Jeff asked for a Scotch and water.

  They chatted pleasantly for a few minutes, and Blaire finally joined them, looking ruffled and irritated and excited.

  “Do you realize how absurd that is?” she huffed at her husband, declining a drink as she ranted. “Seven months! He must be crazy. Sorry, darling,” she said to Allegra, and then kissed her and Jeff, trying to regain her composure. “I just can't believe that.”

  “Why don't we keep the kitchen we have,” Simon suggested cautiously, but Blaire said it was out of date and completely out of the question. “I'm moving out,” he said in an undertone, and his wife shot him a warning look, and they moved on to other subjects. But Allegra could hardly contain herself. And as they sat there, in the lull before dinner, Jeff set down his glass, and looked at both her parents.

  “Allegra and I have something to tell … er … rather, ask you…. I—I know it hasn't been long since we've met, but …” He had never felt so awkward in his life, he felt like a kid again, and Blaire was staring at him in disbelief, while Simon smiled at him. He felt sorry for him.

  “Are you asking me what I think you are?” Simon said, trying to lend him a hand, and Jeff shot him a grateful look.

  “Yes, I am, sir.” He felt like a five-year-old sitting there next to her, asking her parents for her hand. “We'd like to … we're going to …” he said, trying to sound like a grown-up again, “get married.”

  “Oh, darling.” Her mother rushed to take Allegra in her arms, and there were tears in their eyes as they hugged each other, and then Allegra looked at her father. His eyes looked damp too, but he looked happy for them.

  “Daddy?” She wanted his approval too, but she could see that she had it.

  “I heartily approve.” He shook Jeff's hand firmly, and both men looked pleased, as though closing an important deal, and it was—the rest of Jeff and Allegra's lifetime. “Well done.”

  “Thank you,” Jeff said, looking enormously relieved. It had been much harder than he thought it would be, though they had made it very easy for him. But it was still one of those ghastly, never-to-be-forgotten moments.

  And from then on, everyone talked at once, and they hardly noticed when dinner was called. They talked of nothing else all through dinner. Samantha was out with friends, and they talked only about the wedding.

  “All right, all right,” Blaire said after the first course. “Now let's get down to details. How many, when, where, what kind of dress, long veil or short … oh, my God!” Blaire said, dabbing at her eyes with her napkin. It was one of the happiest nights of their lives, and certainly Allegra's, who tried to answer all of her mother's questions.

  “We want about forty or fifty people here, at the house, in the garden,” Allegra said happily, “nothing too fancy, just very cozy. In June.” She beamed at Jeff, and then back at her mother.

  “You're kidding, darling, of course,” her mother answered, smiling. Obviously. But Allegra looked at her innocently, not understanding the question.

  “No, we talked about it last night, and that's what we want.”

  “Out of the question,” Blaire said, sounding like the producer and not the mother. “Forget it. No contract.”

  “Mom, this isn't your show, it's my wedding,” Allegra reminded her gently. “What do you mean, ‘forget it’?”

  “I mean that the garden is going to be completely torn out in the next two weeks. There won't be anything in the backyard except dirt and the swimming pool till the fall, so the garden is out. And you can't possibly be serious about having forty or fifty people. Do you realize how many people we know? Allegra, this is crazy. Think of your clients, and all your friends from school, not to mention friends of the family. And, of course, Jeff and his parents will want to invite people. Frankly, I don't see how we'll manage to get away with four or five hundred. Six is probably more like it. Which means we can't do it here. And you can't possibly mean June. You can't throw together a wedding like that in two months. Allegra, now, let's be serious, dear. Where and when are we going to do it?”

  “Mother, I am serious,” she said, starting to look stressed. “This is our wedding, not yours, and we don't want more than fifty people. That's the whole point; if you make it a mob scene, we have to invite everyone. With forty or fifty, we just have our closest friends and it'll mean more to us that way, and it doesn't take six months to plan a wedding for fifty people.”

  “Why bother?” Blaire asked, looking more upset than Simon had ever seen her. Blaire was overreacting to everything, first the architect and now her own daughter's wedding.

  “Mother, please!” Allegra said, near tears herself. “Why don't you just let us organize it ourselves? You don't have to do it.”

  “That's ridiculous. And where will you hold the wedding? In your office?”

  “Maybe. We could do it at Jeff's house in Malibu. That would be perfect.”

  “You're not a hippie. You're an attorney, with a lot of important clients, and our friends mean a lot to us, and to you.” She turned to Jeff then, appealing to him, “You have to rethink this.” He nodded and turned to Allegra.

  “Why don't we talk about it tonight and see what we can do differently,” he said calmly, as Simon watched him.

  “I don't want to do anything differently. We did talk about it, and we want a small wedding in June, in the garden,” Allegra said hotly.

  “There is no garden,” her mother snapped at her. “And I'm shooting in June. For God's sake, Allegra, how difficult do you have to make it?”

  “Never mind, Mother.” She threw down her napkin and got up from the table, looking at Jeff as tears swam in her eyes. “We'll go to Las Vegas. I don't need this from you. All I want is a small wedding. I've waited thirty years for this, and I want to do it the way Jeff and I want it, not the way you want it, Mom. We're the ones getting married.”

  Blaire looked flustered as she saw how upset Allegra was, and Simon tried to calm them both down.

  “Why don't we talk about this after dinner? There's no need for anyone to get so excited,” he said quietly, and both women looked mollified as Allegra sat down again. But it was obvious that this wasn't going to be so simple.

  The rest of the dinner was somewha
t tense, with both women saying very little. By the time coffee was served in the living room, they were all up in arms again, with Allegra wanting forty friends, and Blaire thinking they should have five or six hundred. She was suggesting their club or the Bel Air Hotel, and Allegra felt having her wedding there was tacky. She wanted it at the house, and Blaire said she couldn't manage a show and a wedding all at the same time, and trying to do it by June was ludicrous. For at least two hours there appeared to be no possible compromise whatsoever. And then finally, both sides having worn each other down, Allegra grudgingly agreed to a hundred and fifty, while her mother pushed for two hundred, and she said that if they'd wait till September, when she was on hiatus with the show, and the backyard would be finished, she thought she could manage it at the house. Allegra hesitated for a long time over that one, and she consulted in an undertone with Jeff. They really didn't want to wait five months to get married, but he pointed out that he'd be finishing his movie right around then and they could leave for their honeymoon immediately, instead of waiting three months after the wedding to take it. There was a certain benefit there, and although she hated to do it, Allegra conceded, at Jeff's urging.

  “But that's it, Mom. Don't push me any further. A hundred and fifty people in the garden in September. Period. Not one more person. And I'm only doing this for you.” It sounded like a game of Monopoly as the two men listened, and Simon looked at his wife hopefully.

  “Does this mean I get to keep my kitchen? There's no way they can put the new one in by September, from what they were saying tonight.”

  “Oh, shut up,” Blaire said to her husband, angry all over again. “Mind your own business.” But she smiled sheepishly, and a few minutes later, they all seemed to be unwinding. It had been an exhausting evening.